1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to flash cards, specifically to flash cards used for teaching and practicing how to play the game of blackjack.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
A common instructional aid for teaching and practicing educational material and games is the "flash card." A flash card is usually a rectangular card, sized so it can be held in the user's hand. A question or situation is printed on one side of the card. The answer to the question, or the action to be taken in the situation, is printed on the other side. Many cards are gathered together in a stack or deck, with all the sides on which the questions are printed facing up. The user views each one in sequence, first looking at the question side and then flipping it over to look at the answer side. The cards are then arranged in random order, or shuffled, so that the user never knows which one will come up next.
Flash cards are commonly used in elementary schools for the teaching of arithmetic. An arithmetical question is printed on the front, for example, "2+2=?". On the back is printed the answer, in this example, "4". Flash cards have also been created for teaching games, including blackjack.
The printing on flash cards is usually unidirectional, that is, the cards must be oriented right-side up be read correctly. Therefore, when stacked and shuffled, not only must they all be facing up, but in addition, their orientations must be consistent so that as each card is viewed and discarded, the next one is able to be viewed in a similar orientation. This restriction means that care must be taken when shuffling or otherwise mixing unidirectional cards to keep them oriented correctly. Such unidirectional cards sometimes have an unique mark or physical anomaly which facilitates proper orientation when stacking, such as a single notched or flattened corner.
There are card devices which do not have the unidirectional nature of the cards described above. A common example is standard playing cards used to play bridge, poker, or blackjack. The card faces are essentially the same when viewed right-side up or upside down, because the symbols and numbers on the faces are arranged symmetrically about a line drawn across the card from one side to the other. The nondirectional nature of playing cards facilitates shuffling of the cards because the orientation of the cards with respect to one another is not a factor, as long as they are stacked all facing the same direction.
Flash cards present a useful way to learn the game of blackjack, and have been produced heretofore. To play blackjack well, a player must know what play to make for each combination of dealer and player cards that can appear. Proper play for each situation can be described in words as a set of governing rules, such as "Always stand if you have a pair of tens." Approximately thirty rules are needed to describe all playing situations. Additional rules governing special playing situations may be added to increase playing accuracy, but with the disadvantage of increased difficulty of learning. Learning to play can be facilitated by the use of flash cards because there are many combinations of cards that are possible, and it is advantageous to be able to practice them in random order.
In his book Million Dollar Blackjack (1981), Ken Uston presented a set of flash cards for learning how to play blackjack. These cards have subsequently been produced as a stand-alone product. A page from Mr. Uston's book is reproduced as FIG. 7. The flash cards are about 4 cm. square and are printed on the front only. They have numbers and letters in large print representing the playing cards belonging to the player and the dealer. The "answer" is a number in small print in the corner of the card. The player must learn the numbers corresponding to each combination of playing cards, and he uses this knowledge in optimizing his playing of the game. These flash cards have at least two deficiencies. First, they are unidirectional in nature, and therefore very inconvenient to shuffle. Moreover, the numbers and letters in large print are only representations of the values of the player's or dealer's cards. They do not depict the cards as they actually appear when held in the hand. The user must translate what the numbers or letters show into a visualization of the playing situation. This process of translation causes a delay in the learning process, and does not accurately simulate the playing situation.
Another blackjack flash card product is Flash Jack, initially manufactured by V. R. Clavel (1986). We purchased in the inventory, trademark, goodwill and all other rights of Flash Jack in August 1990. Flash Jack comprises a deck of cards which describe the playing situation in words on the front and which have the answers in words on the back. There is no pictorial representation whatsoever of the playing situation, and the cards are unidirectional. The information presented is overly complex and requires significant time and thought to assimilate.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,246,152 to Perrine (1917) discloses a pack of flash cards upon which are printed arithmetical problems, and presents a children's game for learning arithmetic. The problems are printed at opposing ends of the cards, so that the problem is visible right-side up at the top end of the card, no matter which end is held uppermost. However, when one flips the card over, the answer revealed on the back of the card is unidirectional. This implementation therefore limits the invention to a single problem per card, and limits the ease of shuffling the cards. This invention is directed primarily towards the minimization of the number of cards necessary to provide a complete exposition of all possible combinations in an area of arithmetical study, such as multiplication.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,399 to Gordy et al. (1973) discloses a pack of flash cards for teaching the game of bridge. It presents each hand of bridge on a set of four cards, one for each player in the game. The cards have a different hand at the opposing end of each card, thus presenting two hands in each set of four cards. The cards are specifically designed only for instruction in how to bid in the game of bridge. They have the deficiency that one cannot easily shuffle them, except as four separate decks. Moreover, they use numbers and letters to represent card faces and do not depict the card faces as they actually appear.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,549 to Cywar (1977) discloses a blackjack card deck. Each card has a number and suit printed in the corner to simulate one of the player's cards. The card has a chart summarizing the action a player should take depending on what other cards are present. The chart has the player's cards and the dealer's cards along its two axes. The cards are unidirectional, and therefore inconvenient to shuffle. Though the symbols in the corners of each card simulate the printing on a playing card, they do not substantially depict any actual playing card situation. The information presented on the card in chart form is relatively complex and difficult to interpret compared to similar charts portrayed in current blackjack literature.
In summary, flash cards heretofore known for the teaching and practicing of card games, and specifically blackjack, suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) The flash cards do not portray a true-to-life depiction of the player's and dealer's cards which the player would see when playing at a casino blackjack table. Instead, plain numbers or letters are used to represent the values of the visible cards. This inferior representation method delays the learning process by forcing the user to translate the numbers or letters into a mental image of the cards being played. PA1 (b) The flash cards are unidirectional in nature, preventing easy shuffling, as is possible with a standard deck of playing cards. PA1 (c) The information on the cards is frequently complex. Complexity deters the user from learning and practicing quickly. PA1 (d) There exists no simple means for accurately representing multiple-card combinations in the player's hand. PA1 (a) to provide a method of pictorial representation of playing cards on flash cards which will facilitate and expedite the comprehension of card combination situations in the game of blackjack; PA1 (b) to provide a method of pictorial representation of playing cards on flash cards which will present a more accurate simulation of the activity of playing the game of blackjack than provided by the current art; PA1 (c) to provide a method of arranging information on flash cards which will enable ease of shuffling of the flash cards.